The Russian State Defence Exporter JSC ROSOBORONEXPORT and the Finmeccanica companies SELEX Elsag, SELEX Galileo and WASS have signed, at the Farnborough Airshow, three Cooperation Agreements to propose to the markets newly built or upgraded Patrol aircraft based on different types of Russian aircraft, equipped with a CNI (Communication, Navigation and Identification) suite provided by SELEX Elsag, a Mission System integrated by SELEX Galileo ATOS Mission Management System and an Armament System including WASS Light Torpedoes.

Mr. Mikheev said that “Individually ROSOBORONEXPORT and the Finmeccanica companies are key market players; together the synergy of their complementary products and excellences will make them a Leader in the Patrol Aircraft market”.

“SELEX Elsag has been working with Russian partners since the first half of the Nineties, with activities mainly focusing on professional radio-mobile, Security and postal sectors”, said Paolo Piccini, SELEX Elsag COO. “We are very pleased with this agreement which, by building on these relationships, will enable us to further boost our presence in the CNI domain on those international markets where ROSOBORONEXPORT is already active”.

“We are thrilled with this new opportunity to promote our operationally proven ATOS airborne surveillance mission system”, said Fabrizio Giulianini, SELEX Galileo CEO. “Thanks to this agreement with ROSOBORONEXPORT, the inherent adaptability of our system paired with our expertise in system integration will be fully exploited on a wide range of platforms, delivering enhanced and tailored surveillance capability to new customers”.

“This is a very important agreement for us”, declared Renzo Lunardi, WASS CEO. “We believe it will further increase our ability to provide our leading edge underwater capability to a larger number of international customers”.

The new/upgraded Patrol Aircraft will be offered to Third Countries and will be capable of performing a wide range of missions including: surveillance and borders control over sea and over land, control of navigation routes, patrolling against smugglers, narco-traffic and illegal immigration, surveillance of EEZ and oil rigs, SAR/CSAR, environment monitoring and pollution detection.

Armed variants might also be developed for law enforcement, anti-piracy missions, and ASW/ASuV missions.

The Aircraft type and the Mission System configuration will be defined to meet in the most cost-effective way the specific Operational Requirements of each End-User.